Beauty and Wedding make-up

Helena Lee tries to find the perfect make-up for her wedding day

In part five of our wedding blog series, Bazaar’s assistant features editor Helena Lee tries to find the perfect make-up for her wedding day.

The platonic ideal of all wedding make-up should be this: an unshifting friend that withstands tears but will let you do all the talking. Last year, I was honoured to have been asked by my best friend to apply the make-up for her big day. I took her to the Bobbi Brown and Laura Mercier counters in Liberty and realised that wedding make-up was an altogether different beast. ‘Nude’ and ‘flawless’ took onnew meaning. ‘Dewy’ became the buzzword of the day, and prepping and priming your skin was as essential as cleansing and moisturising.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

I decided that I would do my own make-up. My Chinese eyes can prove tricky for even the most accomplished artist. I borrowed the expertise of our assistant beauty editor Victoria Hall, who whipped me round the counters at Selfridges and in 20 minutes, I had an almost complete range of products for the day.

My one essential piece of advice is to try each product before you use it on the day. This includes everything from eyelash extension trials to testing a different foundation. It’s important to feel comfortable with what you are doing; you don’t want to worry about how to apply an eyeliner you’ve never used before.

I’ve now been testing the products for a month and these are my top picks:

The alchemy of this foundation is dumbfounding. Just a dab has transformative powers. It glides onto the skin, evens out skin tone and the result is luminous and natural. Mixed with a little of their Fluid Sheer Illuminator, cheeks look radiant. I’ll layer this up on the actual day for the photographs.

I wear terrible amounts of eyeshadow, so I swear by Laura Mercier’s Flax Eye Basics on the eyelids before applying the colour to keep it all in place.

For the rest of the face, I’m using Dior’s Airflash CC Primer. This exciting product has breathed some much needed innovation into my make-up routine. Shake the can (which instantly cools) and spray the primer all over the face before applying foundation. It helps the foundation last longer, and does actually give a nice glow to the skin. A real find.

One product I’ve yet to try is Dior’s Airflash Matte Touch (shop here) from the same range – the powder that sets the makeup, but I shall be investing in that before the wedding.

This corrector takes away some of the darkness under my eyes, but I’m yet to be completely satisfied with a product for this area. Instead, I’m drinking lots of water, eating lots of fruit and climbing four flights of stairs every day instead of jumping in the lift. I hope that works.

I tried lash extensions at Lash Bar on Marshall Street, and asked for a half set (rather than a full set), which means attaching an extension to every other lash. If you’re thinking about extensions, I would definitely try them at least two months before the big day to see if you suit them. They didn’t agree with me, unfortunately, because I could feel them, and were quite discomforting (if I did it again, I would ask for singular ones to be added to the outer lashes), but I know on others, they look fantastic.

Sign up to the bazaar newsletters now:

Please tick here if you would like to opt out of the Harper’s Bazaar Beauty Bulletin Newsletter.
Hearst: We will also let you know about discounts and great offers from us, tick this box if you'd rather not know about these.
Hearst Partners: would like to let you know about some of their fantastic discounts, special offers, and promotions. We promise you wont be bombarded. Tick here if you would like to receive these.